A few ways I’ve been shocked by my own culture in the last months:
- Other kinds of foreign language. I approached some people in Aldi, excited that they were speaking another language… only to discover it was a butchered version of my mother tongue.
- The politeness of complete strangers, even if they’re not trying to sell you something!
- Efficiency.
- The constant busyness. Without lifting a finger to plan, one can manage to walk into a new week with a full schedule.
- The availability of, well, everything. If I can’t find it on a garage sale, I’ll pick it up at Wal-Mart or simply order it from Amazon.
- The quietness. No noisy neighbors at night.
- Menu prices. They’ve already made my eyes pop out more than once.
- Not needing to carry tp with me everywhere I go.
- The evasion of temperature extremes. Cold? No problem! Turn on the heat! Hot? Easy peasy. Turn on the air conditioning!
Little by little, I’m acclimating to my own culture… A journey that will probably continue until I leave it again.
Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash
My Thoughts From Afar | 
And for coming back from Honduras:
The white walls. Everything was so crisp and clean!
The smooth roads on which we simply race from place to place.
So much grass everywhere, instead of bare dirt.
Forests with underbrush. Not much of a thing there, since people need firewood.
And like you said, hectic busyness!
And traffic that obeys the rules. At least sorta. The list can go on and on, can’t it?